Utilizing footage from major news outlets to frame the issues, Parrish follows the sisters through a tumultuous time. Throughout, the sisters are frank in their opinions, in assessing the work that is their spiritual practice as well as their passion, and clear-eyed but ultimately optimistic about the future of women religious in America. A thoroughly engaging film that is top-notch in all technical aspects, Radical Grace is a winning choice for academic libraries supporting religious studies, women’s studies and social justice degree programs.

Throughout the documentary, their struggles and triumphs become ours, which is a testament not only to the Sisters, but also to director Rebecca Parrish… Radical Graceis a story that hasn’t been told before, and the Catholic church should thank these sisters for representing it proudly.

Is Radical Grace essential festival viewing? A thousand million times yes…It would be A VILE SIN not to see it.

The documentary is a funny, fast-paced window into the battle between U.S. nuns and conservative elements of the Catholic Church over the past four years… The film asks how these women can stay in a faith that demeans their work and questions their spirituality. For that matter, how can I?

Rebecca Parrish delves into questions of equality and social justice with her enlightening and often funny documentary about feminist nuns. Given the Roman-Catholic church’s generally monolithic look in the media, even hearing feminist nuns exist will no doubt already be unusual to audiences.

“Radical Grace,” for instance, which is a scrappy inspirational portrait of a group of elderly and affable feminist Catholic nuns fighting against strict Vatican orthodoxy, could get a big boost after its Hot Docs world premiere, where local press and audience buzz have the potential to drive industry attention.

Susan Sarandon has boarded “Radical Grace” as executive producer in advance of the feature documentary’s world premiere at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto. “This film comes at a major crossroads in the Catholic church, and the nuns are everything that’s right with the institution. They stand with the marginalized, and won’t be bullied by a hierarchy that still doesn’t treat them as equals,” commented Sarandon.

Though “Radical Grace” clearly admires its subjects, it resists the temptation to idolize women religious and allows viewers rare access to moral and spiritual quandaries that some sisters faced after the doctrinal assessment.

This is not what I was expecting nuns to be like. It’s real, because these are not the type who wear full robes and fall in line. These nuns are fully modern, fighting against what they believe are destructive anti-progressive patriarchal systems. They’re not wrong.

{Sister Christine Schenk} says Parrish and her team “saw things in us that we didn’t see. Because you just go and do what you do but you don’t think it’s any better or worse than what other people do. They were able to pull out the best in us.”

She was especially happy to see the diversity of the audiences that showed up to watch a movie about nuns – “not just the wonderful, gray-haired radical people but also young, spry radical people.”

“What we need to spend our time on is this: Are we spreading love?” Sister Campbell said. “It’s not just within the Catholic Church, it’s all of us together. We are one, and we cannot separate ourselves from each other or from creation. We have a huge task in front of us.”